Teams for Saturdays match South Africa v All Blacks

Peter de Villiers has made seven player changes and one position move for Saturday’s Tri-Nations match against New Zealand at the 90,000-capacity FNB Stadium, formerly Soccer City, venue for last month’s World Cup football final, and it will be the first time the Springboks have played in the township of Soweto. The match kicks-off on Saturday at 16:00 GST with coverage on SkySports4.

Scrum-half Francois Hougaard and lock Flip van der Merwe get their first starts for the Springboks, whilst there are recalls for wing JP Pietersen, centres Jean de Villiers and Juan de Jongh, flanker Juan Smith and prop Jannie du Plessis.
Gio Aplon moves from wing to full-back in place of the injured Zane Kirchner.

New Zealand, who need only a point from their final two games to win their 10th Tri-Nations title, have brought in Jimmy Cowan for Piri Weepu at scrumhalf and Ben Franks comes back on the tight head.

Teams

South Africa: Gio Aplon, JP Pietersen, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Morne Steyn, Francois Hougaard; Pierre Spies, Juan Smith, Schalk Burger, Victor Matfield, Flip van der Merwe, Jannie du Plessis, John Smit (captain), Gurthro Steenkamp.
Replacements: Chiliboy Ralepelle, CJ van der Linde, Danie Rossouw, Francois Louw, Ricky Januarie, Butch James, Wynand Olivier.

New Zealand: Mils Muliaina, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Joe Rokocoko, Daniel Carter, Jimmy Cowan; Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (captain), Jerome Kaino, Tom Donnelly, Brad Thorn, Ben Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: Piri Weepu, Aaron Cruden, Israel Dagg, Corey Flynn, John Afoa, Samuel Whitelock, Victor Vito.

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